Hubs bowl over Rebels with pins

The flu bug forced the South Hagerstown wrestling team to postpone its city showdown with North Hagerstown almost two weeks.

Eleven days later, the Rebels couldn't shake a case of the Mondays.

North lost only one bout -- the final contest of the evening -- and scored nine pins as it rolled past South 73-6 to clinch at least a share of the MVAL Piedmont title. The match was rescheduled from Jan. 24.

"The boys gave it everything they had," said Rebels coach Ralph Stottlemyer. "They were just outmatched."

North 125-pounder Adrian Rivas opened the match with a 15-0 tech fall of Nick Buonocore and Kevin Mothershed followed with a 13-3 major decision at 130 to give North a 9-0 lead. De'lon Agee was well on his way to a tech fall at 135 before scoring a third-period pin of Jake Carder.

Joe Breehl scored a major decision at 140 and Jim Eichelberger took a forfeit at 145 to give North a 25-0 lead. From there the Hubs (12-6) reeled off eight straight pins -- seven in the first period -- and had the match clinched after Dan Mazzei's fall at 171.

"Any time you watch one of your teammates get a pin, it give you momentum," said North coach Greg Slick. "As a coach it's nice to see a 7-6 decision on a last-second takedown. But the guys get pumped after a pin."

Leonard was originally slated to take a forfeit, but South instead conceded to Eichelberger and moved two wrestlers up one class. It made no difference as Leonard pinned Jeff Duchane in 26 seconds -- the fastest fall of the evening -- for only his third win of the year.

"I always come to wrestle. I never want to take a forfeit," Leonard said. "We wrestled really well and just wanted to show that we're one of the better teams."

Tim Mowen posted the only win for South at 119 -- the final bout. Mowen suffered a takedown to Javaad Qadir before scoring a reversal and getting the pin in 1:37 as the Rebels (2-15) avoided the shutout.

"(Mowen) is one of my veterans," Stottlemyer said. "He got in trouble earlier in the match, but turned it around for a good win. The boys were glad to get that win."

South wrestlers failed to score a point in 10 of the 14 bouts. Mowen's reversal and Kyle Toms' takedown at 130 were the only two-point moves and the Rebels totaled only nine individual points for the match.